


A Headful of Daxes

by phinnia



Category: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-30
Updated: 2020-05-12
Packaged: 2021-03-01 20:06:53
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 15
Words: 17,142
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23932771
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/phinnia/pseuds/phinnia
Summary: If the symbiont had taken a turn to the worse on DS9, what would they have done?Here's an interesting theory, anyway.  There was one person who never succumbed to that Cardassian virus from the replicator system ...Quark.
Relationships: Ezri Tigan & Quark, Ezri Tigan/Kira Nerys, Ishka & Quark (Star Trek), Julian Bashir & Quark, Kira Nerys & Quark, Kira Nerys/Odo, Odo/Quark (Star Trek), Quark & Benjamin Sisko
Comments: 27
Kudos: 53





	1. Chapter 1

Doctor Bashir made his decision quickly, like he did everything these days, and grabbed Quark by the arm. 

"Watch the suit! Watch the suit!" Quark whines.

He drags Quark over to the side. "Listen, Quark. Jadzia is dying, and the symbiont is taking a turn for the worse. It needs to be transferred into a body within the next forty-five minutes."

"Why are you talking to me, then?"

"Because you have the strongest immune system. You didn't get that Cardassian virus that took over the replicators. I've never seen you get sick, ever. You can do this, Quark."

"Wait, wait." He stepped back. "You're going to put a _worm_ inside me?"

"If you consent, yes. It's either that or Dax will die."

Quark thought about this, weighed the pros and cons.

Jadzia was dying. But that was already happening.

And if he did this ... he could help Jadzia.

It wasn't really like Ferengi to help people. He blamed his father for this. His father had always been one of those kind, helpful types. Most of that nonsense had rubbed off on Rom, but some of it had ended up on him, too, leading him to helping Bajorans during the occupation, things like that.

Quark smiles. "Where do I sign?"

When Quark wakes up again after the surgery, he feels different. 

Very, very different.

It was hard to turn the chatter down inside his head.

 _Quark? Why do you have the symbiont?_ Jadzia.

_Oh I remember this one, Odo thinks he's -_

_Curzon, quiet!_ Jadzia again.

 _You were interesting to share a body with. I suppose we'll share a body for some time now._ Audrid.

 _Do you know anything about shuttles?_ Torias.

"Will you all shut up! Stop talking!" Quark shouts.

"You're awake, Quark." Bashir rushes over to his bedside. "How are you?"

"I have voices inside my head and they all want to know everything." Quark puts his head under his pillow. 

"Well, I'd offer to send you to the Symbiosis Commission on Trill, but -"

"Yeah, big problem, since I'm no more a Trill than you are."

"Why don't you ... take some time off, I'll do a little reading, and we'll see what we can come up with between us."

Rom was in charge of the bar. He stumbled home, looking at everything through new eyes, and fell into his room, which was quiet. Blessedly quiet. Just all of the Daxes in his head.

"All right." He says to the voices as he lies down on his own bed and shuts his eyes. "If you want to talk to me, do it one at a time. I have the symbiont because it took a turn for the worse and they had to put it in somebody. The Ferengi immune system is strong, so they put it in me. So I'm Quark Dax now, I guess. Nice to meet you all."

 _You can just think at us, you know_. Jadzia.

"One thing at a time. Natima taught me about testing one thing at a time. She said that was important for some reason."

The rest of them access all of his memories on Natima, and then there was a soft clarity passing through his mind.

 _You really loved her._ Audrid.

Quark swallows. "I did. I try not to think about what might have happened to her."

There was a chime at his door. 

"Well, I'm not getting up." Quark shouts. "So come in if you feel like it, I don't care."

Sisko strides inside and looks down at him curiously.

He sees Sisko through several awarenesses - Curzon's, Jadzia's. Jaron's at Jadzia's _zhian'tara_. As a young ensign, as a lieutenant, getting married to Jennifer - oh, Jennifer wasn't bad for a hu-man - and as he was as he'd come on the station. As he is now. Jake as a younger child, as an infant.

Quark smiles and props himself up on one elbow. "Benjamin."

"That is so _strange_ to hear in your voice." he breathes. "So strange."

"Get used to it. I can call you something different."

"I don't think so, old man." Benjamin laughs. "I don't suppose I can persuade you to be the _second_ Ferengi in Starfleet?"

"I may have been joined yesterday, but I certainly wasn't _born_ yesterday." Quark chuckles. "No. I have a bar to run. If I can ever get all the other Daxes to shut up."

"I just thought I'd ask."

Odo drifts off to sleep, eventually, and is woken up by Bashir, who wants to see him again, so he drags himself down to the Infirmary. Everybody looks at him strangely, trying to see some glimpse of Jadzia, but he keeps his mouth shut. 

"How are things?" Bashir asks him.

"A whole bunch of loud Daxes in my head still."

"I think that's an interaction between the symbiont and your Ferengi biology." Bashir says. "You don't have telepathic abilities, so they just ... speak to you in your head all the time."

"Great. Loud Daxes for the rest of my life. Blessed Exchequer." Quark rolls his eyes.

"I'm reading up as much as I can." Bashir promises. "I sent for some new information from Trill. Garak's helping me with the security clearances."

Quark walks back from the infirmary with his head down, not really watching where he was going, when he bumps straight into Kira.

"Quark? Are you ... are you all right?" She looks at him more closely. "How are things going?"

"Noisy. Not that they aren't always noisy, but they're noiser now." He snorts. 

_Say hi from me._

"Oh. Jadzia says hi, by the way." 

She looks at him with new respect. "You can ... you can hear her?"

"I can hear _all_ of them. At least they talk one at a time now. When I first woke up from the joining they were all talking over each other. I thought I'd lost my mind." He chuckles. "No, I'd just gained eight more of them. Enough to drive anyone 'round the grub burrow. The Doctor thinks it's because Ferengi aren't telepathic, so they just ... talk to me, in my head."

"Wow." Kira replies, sounding surprised. "That's ... really something."

"Yeah." Quark sighs. "It sure is."

Late the following morning Quark was thinking about going to the bar when there was another door chime. 

He stumbles over to the door. "What?" And then he takes a few steps backwards.

It was _Odo_. Beige secuity uniform, scowl and everything. Except he wasn't scowling, he was looking concerned, and that was ... strange.

 _Ooh, break out the tranya._ Curzon. _He wants to see how you're doing. Don't just stand there, invite him in!_

"Shut _up_." Quark mutters.

"I didn't say anything." Odo replies.

"I wasn't talking to you." Quark sighs. "I was talking to - augh, never mind. I haven't done anything." 

"I know that, Quark." 

"I haven't been near the bar in four days. You'll have to talk to Rom or Broik. Or Morn. Good luck talking to Morn, by the way, set aside a couple hours before you start."

"I know that too."

"Then what _are_ you doing here?"

"Is it so strange to hear that I'm worried about you?"

"Yes! You don't like me, Odo, you didn't like me before, I don't know why some worm inside me would make any difference."

 _Oh, he likes you well enough._ Curzon laughs. _And speaking of worms -_

 _It's a symbiont._. Audrid replies, sounding snappish.

"It's mine now, and I'll call it a worm if I want to!" He pointedly ignores Curzon. He's already figured out that Curzon's thoughts are best kept for tongo, Risa, bartending and much later after hours when Odo isn't here. He has no use for Klingon culture at the moment. Talking to Worf seems like the worst idea in the galaxy right now.

Except possibly this conversation. 

This conversation may be worse.

"Who _are_ you talking to?" Odo asks. 

Quark sighs and sits down on a chair, waving Odo inside the room. "All of the Daxes in my head."

"Nerys said something about that." 

Quark closes his eyes. "Is that why you're here? Bringing me in on suspicion of something to do with hallway gossip? I never thought you'd engage in hallway gossip. Seems beneath you. Actually it sounds more like something I'd do."

"I'm not bringing you in on suspicion of _anything_!" Odo shouts.

_How do you kill a shapeshifter?_

"Stop _yelling_!" Quark shouts back. 

"Why?"

"Because it annoys Joran!"

"Oh." Odo replies, quietly. 

"Yeah, _'oh'_. He just asked me how to kill you, so be glad I'm getting really good at ignoring him." Quark gets up and gets himself a Black Hole made with real alcohol from the replicator.

_No tranya?_

Quark hisses.

"Something wrong?" Odo asks mildly.

"Nothing I can't deal with. Nothing I'm not already dealing with. Why _are_ you here, Odo?" He collapses in his chair again and drinks about half of his Black Hole. 

"It's ... strange, not seeing you at the bar."

"Well, unless I have a brainwave on how to shut the Daxes up or Bashir works some kind of genetically engineered magic, you're gonna have to deal with Broik and Rom for a while longer."

"So do you know why they talk to you?"

He shrugs and drinks the rest of his Black Hole. "Apparently something to do with Ferengi not being telepathic. Good immune systems, rotten telepaths. So they're just bumping around in my head like it's a dom-jot table in there, and they _have opinions_ about everything I do."

"Everything?" He could hear Odo sloshing faintly. For some reason, his hearing is a little sharper since he's been joined. Not that it wasn't good before, but it was even better now.

"Yup. Everything." Odo didn't slosh unless he was he was ... bothered by something.

_Well, that's just _weird_. _

__

__

_It's not really that strange, Quark._ Curzon laughs. 

"Shouldn't you be getting back to ... Major Kira or something?" 

"I probably should. I'll see you ... later." Odo turns his back and walks off down the hallway. 


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Quark's own opinions on Odo's looks are buried inside the equivalent of an upside-down Tower of Commerce, filled with Ferenginar's thickest muck, inside a locked box in a locked room at the top (well, bottom, geographically speaking), with three Naussicans constantly patrolling outside the door._

Quark goes to the bar the next morning, early. It's empty for the most part; just Morn and the few staff on the morning shift. 

He mixes Morn his usual Denebian mimosa. Morn tells him effusively that it's better than it used to be, and how great it is to see him again. Morn's stories are comforting. Long and comforting. They always were long, and now they're mildly comforting. A sort of drone in the back of his head. They help keep the noise of the Daxes down to what might pass for slightly-too-loud-but-almost-normal. 

Curzon's really chatty in the bar - talking all about drinks and people he sees around them. Curzon's actually not bad when he's not making insinuations about Odo Quark would rather not think about at work.

Of course just after Quark makes that observation Odo comes into the bar.

_Oooh, he looks good today, doesn't he?_

Quark hisses again. (Quark's own opinions on Odo's looks are buried inside the equivalent of an upside-down Tower of Commerce, filled with Ferenginar's thickest muck, inside a locked box in a locked room at the top (well, bottom, geographically speaking), with three Naussicans constantly patrolling outside the door.)

"How is ... everyone?" Odo sits down across from him. 

Quark starts wiping down the bar, which is boring but also absorbing. "Still the same. I miss anything interesting while I was gone? I guess I shouldn't really be asking you, should I, you have no use for gossip. That's why you come here."

_Oh, it's far from the only reason. Did you know he likes you best in red? You should wear red tomorrow._

"If I have to tell you to shut up _again_ \- " Quark shouts, slamming his fist on the bar.

_That's it, channel that anger._

"And I did not ask for your help, you psychopath!" He storms out of the bar in a huff. 

Sadly there's nowhere to go except back to his quarters. So ... that's where he goes. 

"They're going to think I'm crazy." Quark moans into his pillow. "I think I'm crazy."

His door chime rings, _again_.

"What? I don't care." he shouts. "Ask Rom."

"Brother? It's meeeee." Rom shouts. "Are you okay?"

"No idea."

"Moogie wants to talk to you."

Oh, great. _Moogie._

 _Who's Moogie?_ The Daxes all ask. 

"My mother."

"Fine! Put her through." Quark puts his head under his pillow. "Time for Moogie to witness my swan dive into insanity."

Moogie was, of course, dressed.

 _I thought it was customary for Ferengi females to be unclothed_ , Curzon thinks curiously.

"Oh, no, not Moogie." Quark mutters. "Moogie is _enlightened_. Moogie's got lobes. Moogie's giving regular oo-mox to the _Nagus_. Moogie makes _profit_. It's against the ninety-fourth rule of acquisition. Females and finances don't mix."

 _Who made that one up?_ Jadzia, Audrid, Emony and Lela all shout inside his head.

"It wasn't me! I had nothing to do with it!"

"Quark?" 

Quark puts his head down on the desk. "What is it, Moogie? Don't tell me the FCA's back."

"No, I haven't heard from them at all. I was worried about you."

Quark snorts. "Moogie. Both of us know you're lying and you prefer Rom, so just stop lying for my sake at least, all right?"

 _You actually believe - she actually **told** you Rom was her favorite? Quark. That's terrible._ Jadzia's thoughts are gentle and kind and far too nice for his own good, just like she always was.

Quark takes a deep breath to stop himself from crying.

"Quark?"

"I'm fine." 

"You don't look fine, you're lying."

"I'm not fine, there are eight voices in my head that never shut up and one of them is a certified psychotic, but I'm fine for a certain version of 'fine', Moogie." He breathes in and out and in again. "Can we accept that, at least?"

"Ah, yes. Rom told me about the symbiont." She pauses. "You look ... different. Confused. Did you want to come home for a while?"

"That would probably be a terrible idea, Moogie, but thanks for the offer. I don't think I can get away from this. I think I just have to ... deal with it." 

"Good luck. Don't forget the ninety-fourth rule." She signs off.

"Oh, the ninety-fourth rule." Quark says to himself in a falsetto. "Thanks so much, Moogie. Because I needed to be reminded of that right now. 'Expand or die'. You're such a _delightful_ mother."


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dealing with Worf is ... complicated. Quark has a panic attack, or a rant, or both. Dr. Bashir calls in outside assistance.

But he can't get that rule out of his mind. _Expand or die._. So he goes to the bar again. Morn is still there, of course, and he continues telling the story he was in the middle of before Quark left. Well, at least he didn't miss anything, he thinks wildly. 

Oh, and _Odo's_ back for his afternoon surveillance or crime solving or ~~ogling Quark~~ or whatever it is he does at fifteen-thirty.

"You're back."

"Yup." Quark nods, vaguely listening to Morn's tale about the four women he's seeing at the same time.

"Are you feeling better?"

"Not really, my mother called and I'm pretty sure I'm losing what's left of my mind. Why am I talking to you? You don't even like me."

Curzon laughs in an entirely _filthy_ way. Quark hisses again.  
"  
Then Worf comes in and walks up to the bar. "Prune juice."

"Oh, Blessed Exchequer." Quark faints.

"Quark? Quark!"

He sits straight up. "What?!"

He's on one of those interminably uncomfortable bio-beds. Sisko, Bashir and Odo are all standing over him. Sisko and Bashir look concerned. Odo is ... sloshing again, which is strange.

"What happened to you? Odo says you fainted in the bar." Bashir looks worried, and scans him again. "There's nothing wrong with the symbiont, you just ... fainted." 

"What happened just before you fainted?" Sisko asks. 

"Uh ... Worf came in." 

"He asked for a prune juice." Odo nods, confirming. "Then you said 'Oh, Blessed Exchequer' and passed out on the floor." 

"It's complicated." Quark stammers. 

"How is it complicated?"

"He makes me _nervous!_ I'm terrified he's going to kill me!"

_Quark, he's not going to kill you._

"Oh, sure, you can say that, you used to screw around with the big ugly bastard and were great with a bat'leth." Quark retorts. "Do you have any idea of the day I've had? No, of course _you_ do! But just for the three of you who haven't been running around inside my skull, let me fill you in. Joran wants me to _channel my anger_ , I've had to talk to my _mother_ , which is great because I'm not her favorite and we both know that, and I'm terrified that a Klingon is out for my blood or my lobes and I don't know which would be worse! I'm fairly confident that I'm losing my mind and the only thing that helps is _listening to Morn talking!_ The only thing that possibly could be worse is if Brunt showed up and took away my business license _again_! Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to ask Garak if he carries jackets with restraints in my size!" He jumps down and sweeps out the door.

"Well." Doctor Bashir sighs and smiles. "He doesn't ... seem to be taking this too terribly well, does he? May need to call in a little outside assistance."

Lieutenant Ezri Tigan looks around curiously at her new assignment.

She'd been a junior counsellor on the _Destiny_ for some time before she'd been offered this posting, and it was sudden; a chance to work near the wormhole, with a lot of front-line officers. She'd jumped at the chance and the promotion that had come with it. The station hadn't had a counsellor before, but from the sounds of things, and the files she'd had the chance to read, it really needed one.

The architecture was strange: Cardassian mostly with Bajoran and Federation touches. 

She stops in at the infirmary and spots what must be the chief medical officer. He's sitting at a cluttered desk, working at something.

"Hello." She says. "I'm Lieutenant Ezri Tigan, your new counsellor?"

"Oh, hello!" He stands up, and she can see that he's handsome. He smiles. "Doctor Julian Bashir. Oh, you're a Trill! How interesting. Joined?"

"No, I'm not. Never wanted to be joined, actually." She smiles back. "But I'm familiar with all the psychology and the customs around joining."

"I have some experience with Trill physiology. One of our former officers was a joined Trill. She was killed." He sighs. "During a station attack."

"Oh no! Were you close?"

"Sadly, no. She was married."

"So ... what happened to the symbiont?"

Julian coughs. "Well. That's quite the story. Would you care to sit down?"


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _No, he was dreaming again._
> 
> _No, he was drunk._
> 
> _He was definitely drunk._
> 
> _He definitely remembers getting drunk._

Odo paces in the corridor outside Quark's quarters.

He shouldn't really be here. And yet he feels strangely _obligated_ to be here. 

He'd been here for days, taking only time off to regenerate. Quark has locked himself inside and refuses to come out. It was locked securely. Sisko had tried to get in, Bashir had tried to get in, even Rom had tried, but nothing. Quark was just ... well, he wasn't sure whether he should call it 'hiding', 'cowering', or merely 'sulking' at this point. 

He hears shouting every so often. Always Quark, he assumes at some faceless Dax or another. 

After six days, Nerys comes down to talk to him.

"When are you coming back?" she asks, sitting against the far wall.

"I don't know." he replies. 

"I miss you, that's all."

He smiles.

Inside Quark's room, there is a shatter, like something is thrown, and Quark screams _will you quit hassling me or I won't let you have any more tranya! I thought you were supposed to be a diplomat! It's like you got all your training from Brunt_!"

"He's fine." Odo replies at Kira's raised eyebrows. "That happens a lot around this hour."

"2200 is when Quark likes to scream at ... Curzon?"

"Yes. They drink and destroy objects together. I presume it's some sort of bonding ritual."

Nerys laughs and gets up. "Well. I'll leave you to ... your work, then." She kisses him on the cheek.

Odo nods and keeps pacing the hallway.

It occurs to him after half an hour that he hadn't even watched Nerys leave. 

Quark huddles under the blankets in the closet, kicking some of the empty bottles with his feet. Night shift was always the worst. His hands were always cold now, and he didn't want to talk to anyone, because the Daxes would _never shut up_ inside his mind. And he was terrified that Worf would find his way in here with a bat'leth or a couple of those Klingon daggers and skin him alive and put the _hide of a freshly killed Ferengi on his wall_ and eat his heart ...

He screams. He can't stop screaming.

"Quark? Quark!" That was Odo's voice. He was drunk on tranya, he was definitely drunk on tranya, drinking was the only real way of shutting them up, but that sounded like Odo. 

No, he was dreaming again. 

No, he was drunk.

He was _definitely_ drunk. 

He definitely remembers getting drunk.

Odo breaks into Quark's quarters as soon as he hears the screaming.

He'd respected Quark's need for privacy - or if he really forces himself to think about it, he just has absolutely no idea what to do about the situation like everyone else - but this situation, this one, he can deal with this. He understands terrified screaming.

He found broken objects, empty bottles, and no Quark.

Quark was ... nowhere.

He looks around, and then the screaming starts again.

It was coming from the closet. 

Odo opens the closet. "Quark? Quark!" 

Quark is huddled in the bottom of the closet in his atrocious footie pyjamas. He is wrapped in a blanket, drunk, and screaming his head off.

"Quark." he replies, putting a hand on Quark's shoulder, trying to bring him out of the screaming fit. "Quark! Calm down!"

He shakes Quark, gently. 

Their skin connects as Odo slaps his face, and Odo - consciously, unconsciously, or perhaps as a means of comfort - initiates a Link between them.

And he nearly leaps two meters in the air.

Because he can hear them.

He can hear _all of them_.

Emony. Torias. Audrid. Curzon. Jadzia. Joran. Tobin. Lela. 

They're all talking. And they're all talking at _once_.

Jadzia's overjoyed to see him again. Curzon is _smirking_. Tobin wants to know how the physics of shape-changing works. Emony wonders if he's ever tried gymnastics, being a shape-shifter. Audrid is worried about Quark. Joran's fascinated to hear he's a security officer. Torias wants to know about how he was found. Lela wants to know about the politics of his position.

It's not too different from the Link, he realizes. He can think his answers at them all at the same time. So he does. 

_I should probably see to Quark._ He replies after a moment.

 _Don't do anything I wouldn't do._ Curzon adds cheekily.

Odo sighs and ignores that statement, moving away from the Link. "Quark?"

Quark starts to come around. He's muttering "don't be Worf" under his breath.

"I'm not Worf." Odo replies, amused.

"Not looking. You might be Worf, coming to murder me and skin me alive and put my skin on his wall and eat my heart -"

"Quaaark -"

"Okay, Worf can't yell my name like that. That's an Odo thing." Quark opens his eyes. "Why are you here?"

"You were screaming."

"But I'm not now, so why are you still here? Shouldn't you be ... regenerating or reading or whatever it is you and Major Kira do instead of listening to me screaming?"

"I was ... I was worried about you."

"Because of the screaming?"

"Because you haven't come out of here for nearly a week! Morn's worried about you!" Odo sighs. "A lot of people are worried about you. Rom's pestering me about you hourly. The only reason he's not doing it now is because he's probably asleep."

"I would apologize to Leeta, but frankly she deserves it for marrying that lobeless idiot." Quark mutters. 

"Why were you in the closet? And why is it such a mess in here?"

"I didn't feel like cleaning, and the closet felt safer from Worf. Jadzia claims he's not going to kill me but I don't believe her. He's never really liked me and I doubt recent events have helped."

"Worf's not going to kill you." Odo says confidently.

"How do you know?"

"Because I'm not going to let him kill you."

It was just something he said to try to comfort Quark and stop him from panicking, until he realized how serious he actually was about it. 

"How are you going to stop _Worf_ from killing me?" Quark snorts. 

"I'll talk to him." Odo starts picking up some of the empty bottles, putting them back in the replicator. 

"You don't have to do that." Quark is still wrapped in the blankets on the floor.

"Well, you're not going to do it if you're still in that blanket." Odo huffs, picking up more of the empty bottles.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _"A Ferengi without profit is no Ferengi at all."_
> 
> _"STOP THAT!" Quark screams at the top of his lungs._
> 
> Odo talks to Sisko, and to Worf. Quark has a breakdown in the closet.

"So you've spoken to Quark?" Sisko asks. 

"I have." Odo replies. "He won't come out until he's convinced Worf isn't going to kill him."

"Why does he think Worf is going to kill him?" He tosses his baseball up and down. 

"That's ... hard to determine. He'd been drinking quite a bit of alcohol - apparently that helps quiet the other Daxes - "

_"Really?"_

"Yes. And he was hiding in a blanket. When he started screaming I became concerned -"

"Of course." The baseball travels up, down, up again. It's graceful. There's a slight curve to the throw, always different, but the Captain easily compensates for it.

"And I found him panicking in the closet. That's when I found out about most of this." Odo discreetly doesn't mention the accidental Link. 

"So what are you going to do?"

"I told him I'd speak to Worf about it." 

"Do whatever you need to do, Constable. Dismissed." 

Odo finds Worf in Holosuite One, in Vic Fontaine's club. He's listening to one of Jadzia's favorite songs.

"Lieutenant Commander." He says quietly. 

Worf turns. "Constable."

They watch Vic sing a few numbers. 

Odo clears his throat. "I'd like to speak with you."

"Of course." 

"It's about Quark." 

"What does he want now?" Worf grumbles.

"He's locked himself in his quarters because he's afraid you're going to kill him. And I need to know if there's any merit to that claim, or if he's just ... panicking."

Worf's holographic martini glass shatters. 

"I do not understand why Doctor Bashir did not give _me_ the symbiont instead of him." he shouts.

Odo can only be honest about this. 

"I don't know. You'll have to ask the doctor." 

Another silent and very long moment.

"I do not wish to kill him." Worf replies. "No more than I usually do."

Odo nods and smiles, very slightly. "I'll inform him of that."

Quark is sitting in his closet, still wrapped up in his blankets with a bottle of Saurian brandy, when his door chime goes off again. "Quark? It's Odo."

He opens the closet a crack. "Is it just you?"

A deep sigh. "Yes, it's just me."

_Your knight in shining armor is back! He does love those romances. Maybe he'll sweep you off your feet._

Quark hisses. Unfortunately, his hissing is doing less and less to deter Curzon as time goes on.

Odo comes inside, looking around, and sees the closet door slightly ajar. "You're in there again."

"It's safer."

"Well, you can come out now. Worf says he doesn't want to kill you. At least, no more than he usually does."

_I told you he wasn't going to kill you._

"That's supposed to be a relief?!?"

"Quark." Odo kneels down next to the closet. "You can't stay in here for the rest of your life."

"I can." 

"A Ferengi without profit is no Ferengi at all." 

"STOP THAT!" Quark screams at the top of his lungs. 

"Stop ... what?" Odo's confused. Quark's never objected to his quoting of the Rules of Acquisition before. 

"I'm not a Ferengi anymore! I'm some - _thing_ with a worm inside me, and if any one of you calls it a symbiont again I swear I'll throw myself out the nearest airlock!" Quark starts weeping, something Odo's never seen before, not even on the mountain when they thought they were about to die. "I sleep in a closet and have to drink _them_ quiet every night! One of them is a psychotic killer! The only thing that makes them any quieter is _Morn_ talking about his mother or the four women he's seeing at the same time or whatever today's topic is, and I can make better drinks, not that that makes any difference -"

"Quark. Quark!" Odo slaps his face again - 

And the previous accidental Link he'd formed with Quark is re-established.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Why didn't Bashir give the symbiont to Worf? Grief. And the Trill rules about rejoining may apply here.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _This is when Ezri Tigan first sees the Ferengi - Quark - hosting Dax: he's passed out on the floor, wrapped in a blanket, and he has an empty bottle of Saurian brandy in his hand. He is wearing plaid pyjamas with feet zipped up to his neck, and it looks like he's had those ones on for a while. He's mostly sitting in the closet of the room._
> 
> Author's Note: this chapter deals with suicidal ideation. If you think it's best for you not to read, don't. Take care of yourself, please. Especially now.

Quark is stunned into sudden silence by two things.

First, by Odo slapping him on the face.

And second, because his mind is almost ... quiet now.

Not quite silent.

Not like it was before he was joined. 

But the voices are very dim. Like they're coming through a thick wall, with not-quite-good-enough soundproofing.

He can feel another voice, too - feel the shock of its emotions, and shame. He realizes after half a second that that is _Odo_.

He opens his eyes and looks up. "You - you made them - you -"

"I'm sorry, Quark." Odo starts to pull his hand away.

Quark shakes his head. "Don't."

"What?"

"Keep - whatever it is you're doing, it's helping." Quark wipes at his eyes, chasing the tears away and smearing the last stray remnants of his kohl.

"The Link is _helping_ you?"

"Yeah. It makes them ... they're almost ... they're quiet now." Quark sighs, a long shuddering exhalation. "Thank you. I haven't felt real quiet since ... well, I guess you know."

 _Since before he was joined_. 

"Do you mind if I try something?" Odo asks politely. 

"Depends on what you want to try." Quark smiles, weak but making the effort. Now without anyone hanging over his shoulder watching his every move, he could actually make a move. "Never knew I was your type, Constable, but I have to say I'm curious."

Odo coughs and internally, in a section of his mind far away from the Link, curses what he'd told Curzon, half-remembered, under the influence of tranya. "If I pull back from the link - intentionally disconnecting it - does that calmness carry over for you? And if it does, for how long?"

"We could try that, sure." Fear twists through Quark's guts like a spoiled grub. "You're not going to leave, are you? I mean, I know you don't like me, but -"

"Quark." Odo rocks back on his heels. "I may not always like your _actions_ , the things you do. But I don't know where you got the idea I didn't like _you_. And I'm not going to leave. Not until we work this out."

That's too much for Quark to think about right now - he's tired and has had most a bottle of Saurian brandy and he's been sleeping in a closet for the past week and this is the first time his head has been even halfway quiet for _ages_ \- so he decides later is a better time to think about that, despite the presence of Daxes (meaning Curzon and Jadzia, who will obviously have Opinions about what he should do about this whole situation). "Don't you have to go into your gooey-beddy-bye state at some point?"

"You have a replicator." Odo shrugs. "I can get whatever I need from that."

"All right." Quark closes his eyes. "Go ahead."

Odo pulls his hand - and the Link - back and away from Quark.

Quark braces himself - for voices, for an onslaught of Daxes.

He hears nothing new.

Just more of the same muffled voices through soundproofing.

"It's the same." he breathes. "You aren't there, but it's the same."

"You could hear me before?" Odo is sloshing again.

"Kind of. I knew it was you because it wasn't a Dax, I know all the Daxes by now. You were worried. You were ashamed. But that was it. I told you, Ferengi are lousy telepaths. But it's the same kind of quiet."

"Let's see how long it lasts then." Odo sits on the floor. 

"I'd offer you some of this, but you don't drink." Quark has another mouthful of Saurian brandy.

"Don't you think you've had enough of that?" Odo replies gently.

"Oh, I don't know. Enough is never enough, Odo, that's the ninety-seventh rule. But I may not be a Ferengi anymore, so do I have to follow the Rules? On the one hand, what would I do if I didn't? Come up with some kind of useless Federation moral code?" He makes an awful face. "Be like Nog? What a terrible idea. On the other hand, if I _did_ follow the Rules, I'd have to follow all of them, and there are some _very_ tricky Rules, you know."

"Which ones?" Odo never thought he'd be having a discussion with _Quark_ about the _moral_ implications of the Rules of Acquisition while one of them was drunk on Saurian brandy. His life was definitely taking a turn for the strange lately.

"Oh, like 'females and finances don't mix'. Having four fe-male voices in your head, you hear about that one a lot. It's like talking to Moogie all the time, but worse." Quark has another drink, a long slug. "There were a few rules I should have remembered 'fore I did this. Like 'Always inspect the merchandise before making the deal' and 'no good deed ever goes unpunished'. But now I'm at the mercy of 'expand or die'." He snorts. "Moogie reminded me of that one when she called. Expand or die. Good rule. And since I can't expand, well ..." He smiles weakly, swigging the last of the Saurian brandy. "I hope they'll find a better place for this worm to live next, 'know what I mean'?"

Then Quark passes out on the floor.

Odo takes half a second to realize that he's just passed out from drunkenness. On the other hand ... Quark should see someone about this situation. Suicidal ideation is very bad. 

He sighs and taps his combadge. Nothing for it. He's going to have to deal with this, and he's going to have to deal with this _now_. Probably Doctor Bashir, or the new counsellor, or both. Both would probably be best. "Odo to Doctor Bashir."

"Bashir here." He sounds groggy. Odo realizes suddenly that it's early in delta shift.

"Sorry to disturb you, doctor, but I think you'd better come to Quark's quarters right away. Bring Counsellor Tigan with you."

"Right away, Constable. Bashir out."

This is when Ezri Tigan first sees the Ferengi - Quark - hosting Dax: he's passed out on the floor, wrapped in a blanket, and he has an empty bottle of Saurian brandy in his hand. He is wearing plaid pyjamas with feet zipped up to his neck, and it looks like he's had those ones on for a while. He's mostly sitting in the closet of the room.

The floor is littered with empty bottles - tranya, more Saurian brandy, Romulan kali'fal - all the real thing, she realizes in horror as she looks. None of those are synthale bottles. 

Kneeling next to him, with an uncertain look on his face, was a shapeshifter wearing a Bajoran security uniform. 

"I didn't realize it had gotten this bad." Doctor Bashir - Julian, he's asked her to call him Julian - takes out a medical tricorder. "Why is he sitting in the closet, Odo?"

Odo - that must be the shapeshifter, she'd only met him briefly; he's the head of Security here - sighs. "He thought Worf was going to kill him. So he decided to hide in the closet. He said it was safer there. I spoke to Worf earlier and he said he didn't want to kill Quark any more than he usually did -"

 _"What?_ " Ezri blurts. 

"They have a fairly ... contentious relationship." Doctor Bashir replies in a voice that she recognizes as trying to be soothing. "He's a Klingon, Quark's a Ferengi. But they've never actually raised much more than voices before now."

"Worf may want to speak to you." Odo continues. "But that's all."

Julian nods. "So what happened then?"

"Well, I came over here. I'd previously told Quark that I'd speak to Worf, which I did. And I spoke to Quark. Informed him he couldn't stay in here for the rest of his life." Ezri notices that Odo is shifting a little. "Then ... he said he could if he wanted to, and I said 'a Ferengi without profit is no Ferengi at all'."

Ezri is the only one who is confused in the room.

"The ninety-fifth rule of acquisition." Odo says.

She's heard of the Rules, but doesn't know them. They seem to be a vital part of Ferengi society, so she should probably learn them. She calls up a copy on her padd and skims it. Wow, some of these are harsh. 

"And then he shouted at me to stop that. And _that's_ never happened before." Odo confesses.

"What does usually happen?" Ezri asks, curious. "Are the Rules ... a private thing?"

"Not at all. They're shared openly and frequently quoted. Personally and in business dealings. Quark and I _argue_ -"

She notices Julian chuckling softly to himself.

"But we don't fight, and he doesn't shout like that." Odo is still fidgeting. "And he started ranting, and it got worse. He was ... he was _crying_." A look of disbelief. "I've never seen that before."

"I don't think anyone's seen _that_ before, except perhaps his brother Rom." Julian replies, his expression turning to one of greater concern.

"And he started shouting about how he wasn't a Ferengi anymore, he was ... something with a worm inside him - that's what he said, a worm, and he started arguing with the previous hosts about calling the symbiont a symbiont and said that if he heard that again he'd throw himself out the nearest airlock." Odo is still fidgeting, and it's getting worse, Ezri notices. "Then he started ranting about how he was sleeping in a closet and had to drink himself asleep every night to silence the previous hosts. And then I slapped him. And then we ... then we Linked." 

"You _Linked_ with him?" Julian says softly. 

Ezri has heard about this, too. It was part of training. The Founders can initiate a 'Link' with others, through which they can share thoughts and experiences. She's never seen it though. Odo's the first shapeshifter she's ever encountered, and he'd made it clear when they'd met that he was _not_ a Founder, even though he was a shapeshifter.

"It was an accident at first." Odo replies, sounding extremely awkward. "But ... it seemed to help him."

Quark turns over and mutters 'do your own accounting homework, Rom' in his sleep.

"Maybe we should continue this discussion in the infirmary?" She suggests. "It would probably be more comfortable. For all of us."

"Probably, yes." Julian replies.

And _Odo picks Quark up_ as they call for the transport, and she can't hear what he's saying in the Ferengi's ear, but whatever it is, it seems to calm Quark down.

She _really_ has to ask Julian if they're involved now. 

Because it's really reading like they are at the moment.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Quark begins to rate the Daxes in order of how much he likes them.   
> Nerys goes to the temple with the Emissary.  
> Later, Nerys and Ezri have a chat in the replimat.

Kira Nerys was really annoyed.

Annoyed, and worried, too.

Odo was _missing_ \- he hadn't even come back to _regenerate_ last night and that wasn't like him at all, Quark hadn't been seen in over a week, Rom was _frantic_ , and now the infirmary was shut to everything but emergency cases. Not even Morn knew what was going on. So Nerys finds herself pacing in front of the infirmary with Rom and Leeta.

Sisko went inside the infirmary for ten minutes and comes out looking particularly pale-faced.

"Is my brother okay?" Rom asks.

"You'll have to ask Doctor Bashir." the captain says. "He'll call you inside in a few minutes."

"Is Odo in there? Is he all right?" Nerys presses.

"Odo is in there, and he seems to be fine. He's assisting Doctor Bashir and Counsellor Tigan with Quark's treatment."

She was about to ask about Quark, but something about the grim set of the captain's mouth tells her not to.

"Will he be long in the infirmary?" 

"He'll be a while in there, yes." 

She follows him back to Ops and into his office. "Is there anything more you can tell me, Captain?"

Sisko sighs. "I don't know if I _should_ tell you."

"Is Quark in any danger?"

He smiles briefly, a little bitterly. "An excellent question, Major. I'd say ... well, the Ferengi belief system is complex and I'm sure Rom understands it better than I do, but ..."

"You think a prayer to the Prophets might be a good idea?" It's worse than she'd thought.

"If you don't mind accompanying me to the temple, we can go together."

She walks beside him, already trying to compose an appropriate prayer.

Quark's return to consciousness is gradual (Doctor Bashir had given him a mild sedative when they'd gotten to the infirmary) and the first voice he hears is Jadzia's.

Good. 

She's his favorite anyway.

_You're in the infirmary. No, Worf didn't try to kill you. I think Julian's really worried about you, though. He keeps popping in. Rom was crying when he was here, and so was Leeta. Odo's still hanging around, and he won't leave your bedside. Benjamin had that serious face on earlier. You really scared people, Quark._

He sighs and tries to figure out if opening his eyes is a good idea.

_Also you've been wearing the same clothes for a week now._

"I have no idea how any one of you can stand me." Quark mutters.

"Sometimes I ask myself that same question." Odo replies. "How are you feeling?"

"Like I've been dropped from the Tower of Commerce and left in the muck to die, but this isn't the Divine Treasury, so it must be the Vault of Eternal Destitution. Or whatever other afterlife misfits like me are headed to."

Odo grabs his earlobe and twists it.

"Ow!"

"I thought that would be the fastest way to convince you that you're still alive." 

"There are _nicer_ things to do to someone's lobes, you know." Quark mutters, pulling the pillow over his head.

"Not nearly as efficient, however."

He did notice Odo sloshing again. 

Probably discomfort over the oo-mox comment. 

Yeah, that's definitely it.

_Are you sure?_

"I didn't ask for your opinion." Quark says into the mattress. "You were zero help with Worf, Curzon, so shut it before I shove a copy of the Khitomer Accords where the sun doesn't shine, and I _don't_ mean Ferenginar. Not another word."

 _Leave him, Curzon. He's having a dreadful week._ Audrid. His second favorite.

"Quark?" A woman's voice, someone he doesn't know. "Is he awake? Julian told me the bio-bed sensors said he was awake now."

"He's awake." Odo replies. "I think he's talking to someone under the pillow."

Wonderful. She's going to think he's crazy too.

"I'll just sit here and wait. How are you feeling, Odo?"

"I'm fine, Lieutenant."

"Please, call me Ezri."

"All right ... Ezri."

The woman shifts in her chair. "I like your name, it's interesting. Does it mean something?"

Odo chuckles. "It's not interesting at all. It's actually short for 'odo' ital', which means 'unknown sample' in Cardassian."

"That's a lot more boring than I'd expect."

"I thought the same thing." Quark says into the mattress. 

"What was that, Quark? I can't really hear you."

Reluctantly, he sits up. "I thought the same thing. Of course, then I met your father who raised you in a lab and rocked you to sleep in a centrifuge. I mean, I thought _my_ father was bad - what am I saying, my father was terrible, he couldn't hold on to profit if you sewed it into his pants, thank you Rom for that observation - but at least my name means something, even though I make hardly anything at the bar. You - you can be anything, literally, and he names you after _nothing_! It's ridiculous, it's like that mirror universe I've heard Chief O'Brien talking about sometimes. The one with the nasty Kira. Not that she's not sometimes nasty here! She can be pretty rotten on occasion, especially to me. But she doesn't murder people heartlessly or keep Garak on a chain. At least as far as I know she doesn't. Although isn't that Doctor Bashir's job, keeping Garak on a chain? Or maybe it's the other way around with them? I should ask Morn if I ever get back to the bar, he probably knows."

"Quark." Odo puts his head in his hands. 

Ezri rubs her temples to chase away the headache she can feel beginning. "All right. Let's ... let's just start at the beginning with that, okay?"

Nerys bumps into Ezri at the replimat late that afternoon.

"Oh, hi!" The shorter woman turns. "Sorry, I'm just trying to decide what I want to eat. So many choices! Is Bajoran food good? I haven't tried a lot of it."

"Do you like spicy things?" 

"I do!" 

"Why don't you try some hasperat, then."

"Good idea. Do you want anything?" 

"I'll have the same."

"Two plates of hasperat." Ezri takes one for herself, and hands the other to Kira. "Do you mind sitting with me? I'm trying to get to know everyone. I remember your name from the briefing. Kira Nerys, right?"

"That's me." 

Ezri finds them a table near the door. "So you're part of the Bajoran militia, right?"

"Yes." 

She takes a bite. "Oh, wow, this is spicy! I like this. So what's it like in the Bajoran militia?"

"Kind of like Starfleet." Nerys replies.

"Except without as much paperwork, right?" Her eyes twinkle.

"Well, it used to be that way, but now the paperwork is increasing." Nerys laughs. 

They both linger for a while, talking over hasperat and raktajinos, and then Ezri gets to her feet again. "Oh, wow, it's late. I should be getting back to the infirmary."

"How is everything going in there?"

"Not bad." she sighs. "Well, kind of bad. But ... it might get better?"

"If it makes a difference." Nerys says awkwardly, "can you tell Quark I was praying to the Prophets for him? And so was the Emissary?"

"I'll do that. I don't know if it'll help, but anything might right now."

Quark is sitting on the end of his biobed, looking out the viewport, staring at the stars and Bajor slowly turning below.

What was he going to do? 

Odo was regenerating, the new counsellor had gone to get dinner, Doctor Bashir was sleeping. 

All he had were Daxes to talk to.

 _What do you want to do?_ Tobin asks him.

Tobin was probably his third favorite because he reminded him of Rom but was significantly less annoying.

"I don't know. A lot of things." Quark kicks his feet. "If I could do _anything_ I wanted? I mean, anything? Have my own moon and bars of latinum coming out of my ears."

_Sounds okay. Anything else?_

"A ship. A really _nice_ ship. One where everything actually works properly, not like that one Cousin Gaila sold me. And I want my moon in a better location than Cousin Gaila's."

 _Now you're speaking my language, with that ship._ Torias laughs, chiming in. They liked to stick together. They had some common interests, both being engineers, but Tobin was more theoretical. So Torias was his fourth favorite, then.

The door of his room opened and Ezri comes in. "I'm back."

"I know, I could hear you two rooms away." Quark replies, not moving from his view of space.

"Has your hearing always been good?"

"Ferengi have great ears. But I think it's better now. How was dinner?"

"Oh, it was great! I was talking to Nerys."

"Hitting on Odo's girlfriend? Not bad, Counsellor, although I would have suggested someone less irritating. Or maybe you like them irritating."

"Quark." Ezri steps forward and touches his shoulder. "Not every conversation is flirting or fighting."

"When Cardassians occupied the station a lot of the time, one meant the other, or led to it."

"I'd forgotten about that. How long did the Bajoran Occupation go on?" Ezri makes a mental note.

"Thirty years. I had the lease on the bar for seven before the Federation showed up."

"So how did you first meet Odo?"

"He was investigating the third or maybe it was the fourth attempted assassination of Gul Dukat." Quark chuckles, and tells her that story. Talking to Ezri isn't too bad. She's nice, and she doesn't think he's completely lost it. She's cute. If he wasn't chasing his last slips of latinum 'round the waste extraction pit, he'd be trying to close the deal with her.

Instead, he's here in pyjamas (at least he's managed to replicate clean pyjamas and shower, thank the Blessed Exchequer, and Doctor Bashir gave him something for the hangover, so he doesn't feel like he's been run over a herd of targ anymore) and telling her stories where he makes not enough latinum for his own tastes. 

And _Rom_ is running the bar.

He remembers another rule and sighs.

Rule one-thirty-nine. 

"Quark? Is something wrong?"

"Just another rule I can't follow, that's all." He looks out at the dark skies.

"Which one?" she replies gently.

"Rule one-hundred and thirty-nine. Wives serve, brothers inherit."

"I can see how that would be awkward for you." She replies.

"Rom's already running the bar. He'll run it into the ground." Quark sighs. "What do I have? A worm and two hundred and eighty-five rules of Acquisition, some of which I fail at. No, _many_ of which I fail at. A mother who hates me. And no wife, no prospects."

"That's not all you have, Quark." Ezri replies softly. "Nerys wanted you to know that she was praying to the Prophets for you. She said she wasn't sure it would do any good, but she wanted me to tell you regardless. Leeta wanted to know when you were coming back. She said Morn has lots of stories for you. Rom was crying outside the Infirmary door earlier. I'm surprised you didn't hear him."

"I've learned to filter out Rom's crying." Quark replies with another sigh. "Otherwise I never would have made it through childhood."

"All right, that's fair." Ezri laughs. "I have a little brother, too."

Speaking of prospects, she thinks about asking how he feels about Odo, but decides that maybe another day is better for that particular revelation.


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A baseball game and Weyoun Six. 
> 
> _"Is **Morn** the source of all truth on this station? Really? Would all of my cold cases be solved if I just asked **Morn** about them?"_
> 
> _Quark shrugs. "I usually start with him."_

Benjamin comes in the following morning.

"How are you, old man?" he asks.

Quark shrugs. "Not sleeping drunk in my closet anymore, so I guess that's better?"

"I'm sure you'll want to be part of the station's inaugural baseball game, right?"

"I will? I've never told you this, Benjamin, but exercise makes me sweat."

 _That's part of the whole idea behind exercise, Quark._ Jadzia says dryly.

"Come on! It'll be fun! We're all doing it!"

Quark looks at Benjamin skeptically. 

"I'll let you help with the planning and strategizing if you want."

Quark thinks about this, and nods. "All right. First, remember the eighty-fifth rule, Benjamin."

"Never let the competition know what you're thinking. Of course."

"So who is this competition?"

"Some ... Vulcan I know named Solok and his crew." 

"So he's like your Brunt."

Benjamin beams. "Now _that's_ the kind of wisdom I've come to expect from you, old man. He's _exactly_ like my Brunt."

As he gets into the colorless uniform, Quark remembers the hundred-and-ninth rule (dignity and an empty sack is worth the sack - no trouble keeping that one with clothes like these) and thinks about the hundred and twenty-first rule (everything is for sale, even friendship, and if he weren't exhausted and mostly broke, he'd hire someone to murder Benjamin for forcing all this exercise on him - maybe Garak would do it if he asked, as a favor) and then he realizes as he collapses in the dugout (a stupid name, no worms or grubs in there, what's the point of calling it that?) that _the Daxes aren't saying anything._.

"Why are you all so quiet today?" he asks under his breath.

Emony. _Oh, we're just watching the game. Those Vulcans are really mean._

Joran. _I think you should snap their necks. Especially that leader, Solok._

"Thanks." Quark replies with a chuckle. "I'll make sure to tell Benjamin you said that."

"Any between-inning thoughts, old man?" Benjamin comes over.

"Well, most of the Daxes are just watching. Joran thinks you should snap Solok's neck, though." 

"That's ... insightful." He looks disturbed.

"Yeah, he's like that a lot. Emony says the rest of them think the Vulcans are really mean. But they're not mean, meanness is too illogical. Remember rule seventy-nine."

"Beware of the Vulcan greed for knowledge?"

"That's the one."

"What does Solok want to know?"

Quark shrugs. "If I knew that, I'd be making enough latinum to buy _two_ moons with bars left over and not sweating through this uniform. Why do they call it a dugout? There are no grubs here. That's a ridiculous name."

Benjamin chuckles. "Your disapproval of the terminology is noted."

Then Benjamin gets tossed out of the game (Odo should stop looking so criminally attractive ~~and he should stop thinking like this right now in front of all these people~~ ) and now O'Brien is running things.

"Hey, Quark." He says. "You want some gum? I made some in a traditional Ferengi flavor. Rom suggested it."

"What am I supposed to do with this?" He looks at the strange white square object, wrapped in foil. It looks like ... something a younger Nog might have played with.

"Oh, it's a traditional baseball thing. The players used to chew it."

"They ate this?" Hu-mans always were strange creatures.

"No, they just chewed on it. It's infused with flavor. Try it." 

"What flavor is this?" 

O'Brien smiles. "I made yours tube grub flavor. Mine and Julian's are Scotch flavor."

He puts it in his mouth and chews it. It's actually not bad at all, and he tells him that.

He thinks that there might be a market for this ... infused gum.

Jake tells him later on there that there used to be one, and he's disappointed he missed out on it. Maybe he could bring the market back? A thought.

Apparently what Solok wanted was some kind of strange Vulcan _vengeance_ , which Quark could have told him was futile. (Rule eighty-eight, vengeance will cost you everything, seems to be still in play.) They lost the game, but they had a better team, and this was somehow due to Quark's brother _Rom_ actually managing to do something smart, and their 'team spirit', which is not really a Ferengi thing at all. This may be the first time he's ever seen Rom do something smart. Possibly second. He's not really sold on Leeta yet. But he did enjoy the gum, and he told Rom that after the game, and Rom wept on him like a lobeling, and it wasn't entirely a horrible day despite all the sweating. (The Daxes were all quiet. ~~Odo was criminally attractive.~~ )

If the game had been on Ferenginar, he thinks as he drops off to sleep that evening, the umpire would have been bribed. 

Not Odo. Odo's never been bribed. He would have known about it. 

He should ask Morn. Morn would know for sure.

Actually no, it would have never happened, because it would have been constantly raining.

Do they play this game indoors? He'll have to ask Benjamin next time he sees him.

Quark wakes up the following day to see Odo about to leave.

"Hey. Where do you think you're going?" he says sleepily.

"I got a coded message from Gul Russol." the changeling replies.

"I hate to break it to you, Odo, but I'm pretty sure he's dead. I mean, ask Morn if you don't believe me." 

"Is Morn the source of all truth on this station?" Odo asks testily. "Really? Would all of my cold cases be solved if I just _asked Morn_ about them?"

Quark shrugs. "I usually start with him. Takes a little time, though, you know how much he likes to talk."

"All right, _fine!_ " Odo shouts. "We'll go ask _Morn!_ " He drags Quark down the Promenade to the bar.

"If you don't get anywhere with Morn, go to Garak after that." Quark replies. 

"Why are you telling me this?" Odo asks.

"Rule seventy-six. Every once in a while, declare peace. It confuses the hell out of your enemies. I guess that rule still applies. So does the third rule, which is never spend more for an acquisition than you have to. Garak is more expensive than Morn."

"You can buy Morn with drinks." Odo realizes.

Quark smiles, showing his teeth. "Now you're thinking more like a Ferengi."

According to Morn, Gul Russol was indeed dead.

But the next question was, who was using Gul Russol's codes?

"You're not going by yourself." Quark replies. "I'm going with you."

"You're not going. I'm going alone."

"You say that like I'm giving you a _choice_. It's me and eight Daxes ... how does Benjamin put it? ... 'riding shotgun'. I'll stay in the runabout." 

"You promise?"

"I swear on my father's vacuum-dessicated remains." Quark smiles, showing all of his teeth again. "Besides, it's not like I won't have anyone to talk to while you're gone."

Odo frowns. 

"Oh, stop making that face, Odo. _Loosen up._ "

"What?"

"It's a hu-man expression. Jadzia learned it from Benjamin. Come on, runabout's waiting."

It wasn't Gul Russol. It was a Weyoun.

"How many Weyouns are we up to now?" Quark asks as they come back in.

"This is Weyoun Six. How did you know -"

"I could hear you both outside, it wasn't difficult."

"I thought you said you were alone." Weyoun Six looks at Odo.

"Quark is ... there's no need to worry about Quark."

"Can I get that in writing?" Quark replies with a snort. 

Then the asteroid behind them shakes. 

_Let me take care of this!_ Torias screams in his head. _I can do this, Quark!_ "

"Out of the way." He shoves Odo to one side.

"I thought you were a cook on that freighter."

"I was. But _Torias_ was a pilot."

Odo quickly steps to one side.

"Who's Torias?" Weyoun asks, alarmed.

Odo starts to explain. 

Quark doesn't hear a word of it. All he sees are the controls and the ships outside, and all he feels is the deck plating underneath him. All he can do is coax what he can out of the little runabout. All he can hear are torpedoes and phasers going off around them.

He manages to get the three of them and the runabout back to the station in one piece. Weyoun Six calls it a miracle, and Benjamin is amazed and pleased. 

Quark is actually grateful to the worm, for once.


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _"You are truly a testament to paranoia, Quark." Garak replies. "And I say that as the compliment it is truly meant to be, coming from one who was previously perilously high up in the Obsidian Order."_
> 
> Quark needs a big hug. Odo realizes something important and has a few talks with some people.

"So you've started to accept the symbiont might not be so terrible." Ezri says the next day. "That's great."

"Well, I like Torias. I like Tobin, too. I have favorites." Quark replies. "Tobin reminds me of Rom, but he's not as annoying."

Ezri laughs. She's interacted more with Rom now, and read the file on Tobin Dax. "I can see why you would say that. Who are your other favorites?"

"Jadzia for sure. She's the nicest. She's was always so nice to me, nicer than I really deserve. And Audrid. I hosted her spirit during Jadzia's zhiant'ara."

"Do you think you see Audrid as ... an ideal mother figure, maybe?"

Quark sighs. "I hate when you make me think about stuff like this."

"I know, which is exactly why I do it."

"Emony's not bad, but she talks about exercise a lot. I like the idea of making some of them be quiet, but sweating is so _repulsive_."

"Who are the ones you want to be quiet the most?"

"Joran." Quark shudders.

Ezri nods. That one makes sense. Joran's a murderer.

"And Curzon."

"That second choice is very illuminating, Quark. What is it that Curzon says that makes you uncomfortable?"

"It's just ..." Quark swallows. "Do I have to answer that question?"

"Yup." Even though Ezri's pretty sure she already knows what the answer will be. 

Quark gets up and starts picking up objects, inspecting them. 

"What are you doing?"

"Making sure none of these are -"

"He's not here, Quark. He's with Weyoun Six. Doctor Bashir and I both take client confidentiality very seriously."

"I can't trust that _Garak_ 's swept the room for bugs, considering he spends his nights in the company of our dear doctor. Or maybe I can. Do you mind if I call him?"

Ezri sighs. "If that will _honestly_ make you feel better? We'll have him here for red leaf tea and bug sweeping."

"You are truly a testament to paranoia, Quark." Garak replies. "And I say that as the compliment it is truly meant to be, coming from one who was previously perilously high up in the Obsidian Order."

"Why thank you, Garak." Quark replies.

"But I regret to say that the best listening devices in this room are on either side of your own head. Now if you'll excuse me, little Kirayoshi's pants need lengthening again." Garak leaves with an amused smile on his face. 

"Well, I suppose we'll see if the ninety-ninth rule is still true." Quark says, and sits down. "And don't forget, listen to secrets, but never repeat them."

"That's basically what therapy _is,_ Quark." Ezri looks up the ninety-ninth rule herself.

_Trust is the biggest liability of all._

"You really like Odo, don't you?" she says quietly.

He nods and sighs. "But what good does it do? He's with Major Kira all the time. He only grudgingly admits to liking me as a person. I don't even know what I am right now. I wouldn't want to put that burden on anyone."

She hears what he's not saying. That a romantic relationship - that love is out of the question. 

This situation already was complicated. And now it just got even more complicated.

Odo settles Weyoun Six in secure quarters.

Now he has to think.

And he has to think about Quark. 

Quark had saved his life today - both of their lives - by insisting on coming along. And with the information that Weyoun Six had already given him, this could be ... a turning point in the war.

But what ... he had Nerys. 

He was happy with Nerys.

Wasn't he?

He liked Nerys. He enjoyed being friends with Nerys. He was sure of that.

But Quark ... Quark was a puzzle. Quark was an enigma. The twist of light in the prism that made an exceptional rainbow.

He was unpredictable. And Odo, who was raised in a science lab surrounded by the predictable, found that he was drawn towards the unpredictable.

 _You could be anything_. Quark had said that one time. _And he named you after nothing._

In a strange way, that statement showed him so much. So many reflections - of himself, of Doctor Mora. And of _Quark_ most of all.

Maybe he should speak to someone.

Doctor Bashir was drinking at the bar. It was still so strange to see Quark absent. He goes inside and sits down beside him. "Doctor."

"Odo! Fancy seeing you here. Are you looking for something?"

"I have ... a rather personal question, Doctor."

"Okay, go on."

Odo sighs. "I believe I'm in love with Quark."

Bashir laughs heartily.

"What's so funny?"

"Oh, that took you _ages_ to figure out. I bet Garak it would take you longer than the war. Now I owe him a bottle of kanar, and the 2309 isn't easy to come by."

Odo sets aside the fact that they've been making wagers on his personal life. "What should I do about Nerys?"

Doctor Bashir smiles. "Let her down gently. If you want to stay friends, tell her that. It might take her a little time, but she'll come around." He has a sip of his drink. "Do you want some advice about Quark?"

That's surprising. "Definitely."

"You realize he's quite ... emotionally fragile right now. So ... I can't tell you what to do. But if you do care about him, take that into account. For both of you."

Odo nods slowly. "Understood."

Perhaps he should discuss this with Counsellor Tigan before he speaks to Quark.

No.

He should discuss it with Nerys first.

He goes to her quarters to regenerate and realizes it's true - he doesn't feel that same pull toward her that he does toward Quark. He'll always love and care for her, but it's not the same feeling. Not the same desire to work things out, to fiddle with something until he gets it right. To untangle a motive from mountains of evidence. 

It's the same feeling he gets when learning a new language, or working out a puzzle, or trying to solve a particularly tenacious case. Quark makes him feel all of those feelings at once.

Quark has always been his most vexing enemy. And now, with eight more minds contributing to his scheming ...

Oh, who is he kidding? 

Himself.

He'd enjoyed the Link. It was pleasurable, talking to Jadzia again. And there was no one else on the station who could match wits with him better than Quark. 

But that sadness - and the self-loathing he'd felt through the Link -

"Hey, stranger."

Odo turns. "Nerys. I didn't intend to wake you."

"Surprised to see you here. I haven't really spoken to you in almost a month." She smiles. "How's Quark doing? I heard about what happened with the Vorta defector, Weyoun. Sounds incredible, what happened. I never knew Quark could pilot a ship like that."

"It ... it was, actually." He sits down. "I believe it's another way the symbiont reacts uniquely with his Ferengi biology. Doctor Bashir's not quite sure, but he'd like to run further tests." Odo coughs. "Weyoun said it was a miracle we made it back here alive. Oh, apparently I should ask Morn about all of my cold cases."

 _"Morn?"_ she chuckles.

"Morn is a surprising fountain of information, if you can work around him talking about whatever today's story is."

"More advice from Quark?"

"Yes. Nerys, I have something to -"

"You want us to break off our relationship." She says gently. "Odo, of course."

"How did you know?"

She sighs, and a slight smile twitches around her lips. "I haven't talked to you in weeks, you spend all your time with Quark, and now you come skulking in here in the middle of delta shift. Not difficult to determine what you want."

"I wasn't skulking!"

She laughs. "It was a figure of speech, Odo."

"So we can still be friends?"

Nerys smiles brilliantly, like a sunrise on Bajor. "Of course we can still be friends."

Ezri comes into the infirmary the next morning to find Quark painting his nails a brilliant algae green. 

"Nice color!" she replies excitedly.

"You can use it when I'm done, if you want." he replies. "Cost you only two slips."

She chuckles. "I'm okay for polish. But it looks great on you! You want me to do your other hand?"

"Nope, got that covered." Quark switches hands easily.

"Is being ambidexturous recent?"

"Nope. Comes with bartending for so long. Useful, when you're handling so many drinks."

Odo comes in. "My apologies if I'm late. I got caught up getting a raktajino for Nerys. There was a line at the replimat."

Quark sets the polish down on the table beside him. 

"I think you forgot one of the nails on your left hand, Quark." Ezri says, nudging him out of his funk.

"Did I? Oh, yeah. Yeah. I did." He picks up the polish again and starts painting that last fingernail.


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Quark goes back to the bar. Odo tries stepping up his flirtation game. Quark remains oblivious.

"Do you think you're ready to go back to the bar?" Ezri asks him later that day.

"I have no idea." Quark replies moodily. "I guess we'll find out, won't we? Morn will be there. Morn's chatter is always comforting."

"Well, that's good to know. And I'm just a comm call away, I promise." Ezri says, taking his hands. "I'll be in my office working on paperwork, and afterward I'll stop by for a drink, okay? Maybe you'll see Odo."

"Probably with his precious _Nerys_." Quark rolls his eyes. Talking to her about his feelings has strangely helped, although it's usually not 'talking' as much as 'ranting', 'sulking', and very occasionally 'almost crying on her like a pathetic lobeling'.

Ezri squeezes his hand sympathetically and smiles. "Come on. Rom really wants to see you." She goes back inside.

"He probably forgot to water down the drinks, the lobeless idiot." He grumbles under his breath. 

Stepping onto the promenade, Quark straightens his new suit and takes a deep breath as he walks briskly towards the bar.

It's still his. He hasn't signed anything. 

He still owns the bar. He reminds himself of that, anyway. 

He still owns _something_ that isn't just a worm. 

"Quark!" 

It's O'Brien again. Quark turns. "Chief."

"Good to see you! Fantastic job you did with that Vorta." O'Brien smiles. He's wearing some strange costume, which means he's off to the holosuites again with Doctor Bashir.

"Brotherrrr!" Rom runs over, hugs him, and nearly knocks him over. 

"Great to see you too, Rom." Quark replies with a cough, straightening the wrinkles in his suit. 

"Guess what!" And Rom starts filling his head with engineering nonsense. Tobin is happy to translate this for him into terms he can actually sort of understand, so he can almost follow what Rom is saying. Between that and Morn filling him in on all the gossip he missed and drink orders, the evening actually flows pretty smoothly. 

Then Odo comes up to the bar.

How does he do it? How does he manage to make _beige_ look so amazingly attractive? It's unthinkable. 

_You could talk to him about changing his uniform after hours._ Jadzia.

Quark snorts. "Like he'd listen to a _word_ I have to say, he barely likes me. And before you say anything, Curzon, I don't want to hear it."

_You wound me, Quark._

"Oh, I'd love to."

Chuckles.

"Quark?"

He turns around and tries to look casual. "Odo! Did you want something? Not for yourself, obviously, since you never drink or eat anything."

Odo puts something down on the bar.

Is he sloshing? It's noisy in here, filled with people spending latinum. 

But Odo might be sloshing.

That's strange.

Quark blinks. 

He looks at the object on the bar and blinks at it again.

He'd expect it to turn into Odo, except Odo is standing in front of him.

"Is that a bottle of _Amazing Aspergillus_? That's my favorite flavor of Slug-O-Cola."

"I know. Rom told me." Odo sighs. "Along with an unnecessarily detailed history of their feud with Eelwasser, and how the vending machines on Ferenginar have worked since he was a lobeling. The only reason I didn't think I was speaking to _Morn_ was because _Leeta_ wanted to hear more of his lobeling stories. Then - fortunately - there was something wrong in one of the cargo bays I had to deal with, so I managed to escape before any of _those_ started."

"All of Rom's lobeling stories can be summed up in the words 'moping', 'whining' and 'expecting me to bail him out of accounting'.'" Quark pops the Slug-O-Cola open with his thumb and takes a drink from it.

"So why did you do it? What about 'never allow family to stand in the way of opportunity'?"

Quark snorts. "You never met my father. He was a _terrible_ Ferengi."

"You mentioned something about that a while back. Something about 'not being able to hold on to profit unless you sewed it into his pants?'"

"Thank Rom for that observation. Occasionally he's not an idiot." Quark sighs, taking another drink from his Slug-O-Cola. "My mother had the lobes in the family. Of course, because of the ninety-fourth rule about females and finances, Father wouldn't listen."

"Was he a traditionalist?"

"No more so than any other Ferengi male that lives his whole life on the homeworld." Quark replies with a snort. 

"Hey, Quark. Can I get a couple of hot Tarkalean teas?"

"Sure thing, Ezri." He turns and gets them for her. "Done your paperwork already?"

"Time flies when you're having fun, right?" She smiles and takes the teas off through the crowd.

"Whatever, if you consider paperwork 'fun'." He watches her go through the crowd with a fond smile. "Uh, Odo?"

"Yes?"

"Um, Ezri's sitting with Major Kira. You realize that, right?"

Odo blinks at Quark. "Quark, are you feeling all right?"

Quark laughs. "I don't even know _how_ to answer that question anymore."

He was sloshing. He was _definitely sloshing_ that time.

Well, life had stopped making any sense long ago anyway.


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A trip to New Sydney.

"I can't come home, mother. I have a _patient_ , and he needs therapy."

"Surely he can do without you for a few days, Ezri."

Quark sighs. Ezri's mom sounded almost as bad as Moogie. Maybe she could give him some advice on terrible mothers.

"No, mother, he can _not_ do without me for a few days."

"Ezri! I can't work this laser thing!" Quark shouts.

She looks out. He grins at her, showing all of his teeth.

"Quark! Put the laser scalpel _down_. Mother, I have to _go_."

"You could always tell your mother I might be dangerous to myself." Quark smiles as Ezri returns.

"Are you?" She puts on her 'therapist face'.

"Nah. But I do get not wanting to go home. I was working on a decade away from Ferenginar before I had to go back because of the FCA."

Then Benjamin comes in, looking ... sober about something.

Apparently Chief O'Brien's gotten mixed up on something, and that something is on New Sydney. Which happens to be where Ezri's mother lives.

"I can't leave Quark here." Ezri replies. "We're at a very crucial point in his therapy right now."

"So bring him along. I've heard the largest mining operation in the system is run by a family of Ferengi. Besides, having spoken to your mother, I'm sure you would appreciate the company."

"Yeah, I would. Definitely. Well, then." Ezri smiles at Quark. "I guess you'd better go pack."

When Quark and Ezri get to the runabout, they find Odo already in there, reading.

"I didn't know you were coming along, Odo." Ezri says in surprise.

"Doctor Bashir thought it was a good idea."

Quark can't really say the same thing. He's managed to get the Daxes quiet enough most of the time with meditation that he only really needs to Link with Odo in emergencies, but Odo's been acting weird lately. 

First there was that Slug-O-Cola. Then he started bringing him lunch, and all of his favorites; jellied tube grubs, sea grubs in a rhizome broth, mushroom and algae puffs. 

How did Odo even _know_ what Quark's favorite foods were?

Quark suspects he's been talking to _Rom_ again.

Curzon chuckles. Jadzia is amused by something. 

Odo slides over to sit beside him. "How are you today?"

And now he was asking Quark all of these questions. Even stranger.

"I'm okay. The Daxes are quiet. The meditation that Ezri is teaching me is going fine."

"What do you meditate on?"

"The clink of latinum falling." he replies. "It's soothing to Ferengi. We use it instead of those white-noise machines."

"Not rain falling?"

"We have a hundred and seventy eight different kinds of rain. It would take hours to decide."

Ezri plots a course for New Sydney and gets clearance from Ops for them to depart. 

"What are you reading?" Quark asks, feeling awkward. 

" _Cover of Darkness_. It's a Bajoran novel. Nerys recommended it."

"Oh." Quark stares out the window as the stars begin to streak past him.

Odo sighs.

Odo wonders what he's doing wrong. 

He's tried getting Quark lunches - even going so far as to contact his mother as to get ideas for his favorite dishes when Rom had run out of ideas. (Ishka was delightful. Very political, and very much a feminist, but delightful in her own way. She reminded him of Quark, and he told her that. She thought that was amusing.) He wasn't quite sure what kind of gifts Quark would want. 

He'd have to do more, somehow, but he wasn't sure what. 

Maybe this trip would help.

Maybe he should talk to Counsellor Tigan. 

Or maybe both.

He goes back to his book with a sigh.

When they get to New Sydney, they visit Ezri's mother's place. Quark quickly determines that her mother is _worse_ than Moogie could ever be. Bossy and controlling.

"You realize the police here are more useless than the ones on Ferenginar?" he mutters to Odo on the back porch after dinner.

"I'm shocked Ferenginar actually has a police force." Odo says, pretending to be stunned.

"Offworlders think they can get away with things. Ferengi know the best way to solve everything is with bribes, of course."

"Of course. I suppose it's a good thing you brought me, then."

Quark smiles. "Yeah. It is."

Norvo - Ezri's little brother - comes out of his room. "So ... how did _you_ get to host Dax?"

"I guess I was just ... there." Quark shrugs. 

"What's it like?"

"Bizarre."

"Come on, Quark. You saved me, and you saved Weyoun Six." Odo replies, trying to remind him of something better.

"Nah. That was all Torias." Quark shakes his head. "I was just ... a convenient piece of meat."

"Norvo! Are you done that second-quarter report yet?" Ezri's mother shouts.

"Not yet, mother!" Norvo sighs and goes back inside.

Odo sighs.

"Missing Nerys?" Quark snorts.

"No. Just wondering ..."

"I haven't done anything, Odo."

"I know that." He sighs, and decides just to say it. "Why do you hate yourself, Quark?"


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _"I have another book you might want to read." Quark murmurs into Odo's ear as they keep walking._
> 
> _"Let me guess. Vulcan Love Slave IV: Return of the Queen?"_
> 
> Our heroes finally manage to get on the same page. The author is having entirely too much fun coming up with hypothetical sequels for 'Vulcan Love Slave'.

Quark blinks in confusion. "What kind of question is that for _you_ to be asking me?"

"Not an unreasonable one, I'd hope. Why?"

"I'd thought Ezri would ask me that question, that's all." Quark sighs. "Or maybe she already knows the answer. I mean, look at me! I don't know what I am anymore, my father was a failure, my nephew is a failure, my brother is a failure and he's running my _bar_ , my _mother_ earns more profit than I could ever hope to, I've already gotten into trouble with the FCA once over breaking a contract and barely gotten out with my lobes and my business license, you're still involved with Major Kira, and ... I've got an enormous, stupid mouth!" 

Odo grins. "You do."

"What?!?"

"Have a big mouth. You are wrong about several things, though. For example, Nerys and I are no longer seeing each other romantically. And your mother is a delightful woman."

"You were talking to _Moogie_?" 

"Well, I had to ask _someone_ what you liked, and I got tired of hearing Rom's lobeling stories."

"You were talking to _Moogie._ " Quark breathes. "Blessed Exchequer, you were talking to _Moogie_ about _me_ and she wasn't _terrifying_ to you?"

"Ezri's mother is _definitely_ scarier." Odo replies with a chuckle. "Do you think I should warn Nerys?"

"Wait, her and _Ezri_ , really? Why didn't Morn tell me any of this?"

"I asked him not to."

"You just _asked him not to?_ "

"Well, it did mean signing off on a shipping transaction, and some people would call that questionably legal. But it was worth it." It had been medical supplies, directed from a hospital he knew was well-supplied for wealthy, private patients, going to the front lines. 

Definitely worth it to see that look on Quark's face.

"Odo?" Quark says in a soft voice.

"Yes?" 

"I meant it, when I said I don't know what I am anymore. And I'm scared of putting all of that on you."

"So we'll work that part out together." Odo replies. "All nine of us."

That makes Quark laugh. "I guess." 

Odo reaches out his hand, and after a moment, Quark takes it.

Ezri says, the following day, that Odo and Quark should go speak to the Ferengi, and she'll deal with her family.

"You sure you're going to be okay, Ezri?" Quark asks.

"I'll be fine." She smiles with determination on her face. "I've dealt with my mother before."

The Ferengi mine was owned by a family named Banda, who'd known Quark's father during one of the brief times when he was successful. Quark and Odo were actually welcomed enthusiatically for dinner. Quark spoke to them about the mining industry, the price of pergium, trade fluctuations in the quadrant, and how his business was affected by the war. Odo had easily been able to explain that he'd worked on Deep Space Nine for years, since it was called Terok Nor and under Cardassian control. Banda's wife had died some time ago, but he had three sons, Indak, San and Pag, who were all 'rampant little capitalists' according to Quark.

"Any trouble around here?" Quark asks after dinner, when the beetle snuff gets passed around.

"Quark." Odo says, but it's more fond than usual.

"What? I'm trying to find our missing hu-man friend, that's all. Certainly not trying to sniff out opportunities for myself."

"The Orion Syndicate comes sniffing around." Banda passes the container to Quark. "I assume you're familiar with them."

"All too familiar." Odo replies with a grumble.

"They're not too interested in us, but they might be more interested in some of the other mines."

"Thanks, Banda." Quark replies. "This is fantastic beetle snuff."

"Keep it, keep it." Banda pats Quark's shoulder. "I still have a disk of your father."

"I don't suppose you want some of this, do you?" Quark asks Odo on their way back, holding up the tin of beetle snuff.

"I don't see the point in inhaling dead beetles. Is it addictive?"

"Mildly, not really. It's ... just fun. No real harm in it. Like a few drinks, nothing worse than that." He's smiling a little more freely, and his limbs are a little more loose. Odo notices his pupils are dilated.

"Hmmm, I suppose you're sober enough to consent."

"I am absolutely sober! Sober, and I have fantastically clear sinuses." 

Odo leans down and kisses Quark.

Quark inhales, blinks. He opens his mouth. He's not sure what to do, but he wants to remember this moment. If he could freeze it into his memory, he would. Odo is kissing him on a quiet night on New Sydney as they walk back to Ezri's mother's house. They are holding hands. Quark has to stand on his toes to reach him, and it's just so fucking beautiful.

"I have another book you might want to read." Quark murmurs into Odo's ear as they keep walking.

"Let me guess. Vulcan Love Slave IV: Return of the Queen?"

"No, _better_." he replies. "Although if you wanted to call me Schmun -"

"One thing at a time, Quark."

Odo is _laughing_ at him, and he isn't sure whether to be embarrassed or really horny, because he hasn't even had his lobes touched yet.

He decides on 'both'.


	13. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Conclusion of the visit to New Sydney. Poetic license was clearly taken with the ending. Another sequel to Vulcan Love Slave appears.

When they get back to Ezri's mother's place, she's waiting up for them, and Chief O'Brien is there, too.

"So, where have you two been while I was being beaten up?" the chief asks.

"The Ferengi family that own and run the biggest pergium mine on the planet used to know my father, when he was very _briefly_ successful." Quark says, settling down on a floor pillow. "We had dinner. Or, well, I should say I had dinner and Odo _watched_ us have dinner. Want some beetle snuff, Chief?"

"Sure. Why not." He takes the container, inhales a pinch, and curses as he hands it back. "That'll put hair on your chest."

Quark ponders charging him, but decides not to. After all, O'Brien did give him that flavored gum for nothing. 

"He thought it was possible that smaller mines might be involved with the Orion Syndicate." Odo adds. 

"Bilby's wife was dead when I found her." O'Brien sighs. "And Bilby was my contact for the Syndicate. So I suspect they're involved."

"O'Brien and I will talk to Janel in the morning." Ezri replies. "He basically runs my family's mining operations now. We'll see what we can find out down there. You should get some sleep, Quark."

"Want to tuck me in?" Quark flutters his eyelashes at Odo. "Tell me a bedtime story? I should really give you that book to read while I sleep."

"Is it _Vulcan Love Slave V: T'Pau does the Trill_? How disturbingly appropriate."

"No, it's _better_. Well, better for me, anyway."

O'Brien looks over at Ezri after they leave. "Did I miss something?"

She chuckles. "If you did, I think I missed something, too. It's okay, I'm sure we'll get caught up."

Quark gets into the family's financial records the following morning, and he finds out that Monica Bilby was on the mine's payroll.

There are quite a few accidents down in the mines, and Janel won't talk about them. O'Brien's suspicious of the Syndicate immediately. 

But it turns out it was Ezri's _mother_ that had killed Monica Bilby on the Orion Syndicate's orders. The mine was in too deep of a debt; Monica had been given a job, as part of that payment; she'd wanted a higher salary and had come to negotiate, and Ezri's mother had killed her.

Joval is shocked. He's willing to testify against her, and against the Syndicate. He's taken into federal protective custody.

Norvo comes back with them to Deep Space Nine.

"So I wasn't making that part about your therapy up." Ezri says on their way back. "We are at a crucial point. How are you doing?" She smiles at him and winks. "How's your relationship with Odo going?"

"Good." Quark replies, although there's a slight tangerine blush on his cheeks. "I didn't know he'd called my mother."

"He talked to your mother? Quark, that's amazing."

"I know, especially if you've ever met my mother."

"She _can't_ be as bad as my mother."

"Okay, she's not that bad. But she is ... bad for a Ferengi woman, anyway. And I guess ... he wanted to know what I liked." 

"Quark, that is _so sweet_." Ezri smiles, taking his hands. 

"I don't know what to do now, though." Quark confesses. "I mean, on Ferenginar the males usually buy the females gifts, but Odo doesn't really ... want anything."

"Just spend time with him." Ezri says. "Time is its own gift. Time with you."

"Time, like latinum, is a highly limited commodity." Quark muses. "Good advice, Ezri. Thanks."

In the other section of the runabout, Norvo was sketching, and Miles O'Brien was trying to work out how to ask Odo an extremely awkward question.

"So." He eventually settled on. "You and Quark, then?"

"Yes, Chief." The Constable had a very slight air of what could best be described as 'patient amusement'. "Me and Quark."

"Seems a bit strange."

"Not really, if you consider I spent my childhood in a laboratory being studied."

Miles laughs. "Well, if either one of you is going to be studied right now, I think it's going to be him."

"On the contrary, Chief." Odo replies softly. "The goal is so neither one of us is a test subject any more."


	14. Chapter 14

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _"Benjamin. Quark doesn't kill people, remember? Joran does, Quark doesn't. Quark just tries to take all of their latinum away. Now Quark is speaking about Quark in the third person, completing Quark's descent into madness."_
> 
> Odo and Quark look into a series of murders.

Quark had thought he'd have some time with Odo after they got back from New Sydney. Unfortunately, there was a murder that took place just before they'd docked, and as soon as the runabout was safely docked at the pylon, Odo turned into an eagle and flew off.

"I've never trusted birds." Quark mutters to himself.

 _You'll see him later._ Jadzia soothes.

Ezri goes to get her brother settled in quarters, and Quark goes off to check on the bar (the fact that it's across from the security office is just a coincidence) and then he hears Morn talking about the murdered kid. There had been a murder the previous afternoon he had information about, too.

He was just in there last night, talking about his family. They had been commisserating.

Quark jumps down from his bar stool and goes across to the security office. "Odo." 

"I don't have time now, Quark -"

"Morn says he knew the murdered kid. He was in the bar last night."

Odo sighs again. "Oh, we're here. Back to Morn."

"I told you to start with Morn!"

Odo comes over to the bar and questions Morn. Morn gives him information about the murdered kid and how he was drinking in the bar the previous evening.

_Let Odo show you the gun._

"Joran -"

_Let Odo show you the gun, Quark. This is important. I can help with this._

He takes a deep breath. "Odo?"

"What is it, Quark?" Odo looks cross after finishing his interview with Morn. 

"Joran wants to help." He smiles weakly. 

" _Joran_ wants to help?"

_Is there an echo in here?_

"No, it's just a thing ordinary people do when they can't believe things like psychopaths like you being helpful, they repeat themselves." Quark mutters.

"Do you mind if I ... ask him directly?"

"Go ahead." Quark says.

They haven't Linked since their relationship actually began. Odo was all for taking one thing at a time and Quark was ... jittery, even though he liked to talk a good game. 

Odo reaches his hand out, and Quark takes it.

Previously, Odo had always been careful to keep parts of himself walled off. The parts of himself that he didn't want Quark to be aware of.

He didn't bother constructing those walls anymore - or if he did, they were natural walls, easily able to wash away with the tides of thought and emotion inherent in their Linking process. 

Quark was able to see everything he wished to see - what it was like in the Great Link, his experiences adrift in the Denorious Belt, his resentment for Doctor Mora. His first experience meeting Quark himself, the disbelief at this strange, ingratiating, noisy being who was always up to _something_ , and most of that something was no good, but he soon noticed that this same strange ingratiating person didn't harbor the same disdain that Cardassians did for him. Quark's only allegiance at that point was latinum and those that provided it. 

But then - later - Odo realized that Quark was capable of odd and unpredictable acts of kindness, and at that point, he made even less sense. 

That was what he'd told Curzon at his _zhi'antara_. It was those unpredictable acts of kindness.

 _You're so strange._ Quark thinks through their Link. _You fell for me not because of my lobes or capacity for profit, but because I was **nice**? That makes no sense. And the worst thing is I've been around hu-mans long enough that it makes sense to me. I'm a terrible Ferengi, I really am, I'm just like the rest of my family._

Odo inaudibly chuckles. _You may be terrible, but you're all mine. Now can we work this murder out?_

Quark shudders through the Link. _Say that again?_

_Now can we work this -_

_Not that, you delicious puddle of muck, the **other thing** you said_.

Odo laughs out loud this time. _Later, Quark. Later, I'll say whatever you want._

The weapon was strange. It was a TR-116, that fired tritanium bullets. 

_Hold it._ Joran insists. _Hold the gun, Quark._

"Do I have to? Guns aren't really my area."

_Hold it. Look through the targeting display. You have to understand the murderer. You are a criminal, but you are also a coward._

"I know I'm a coward, but I'm a coward that happens to be _alive_."

_Take the gun. See what it's like to hold. And look through the targeting display._

Quark closes his eyes for a moment, then puts the targeting display on and holds the gun to his shoulder. "I'd like to say that this is officially creepy now."

Odo can see through Joran's eyes, and through Quark's, through the Link. 

It's a cold, distant, faraway sensation, looking through the targeting display.

 _This person has killed two people._ Joran says through the Link. _May we see the crime scenes?_

"Of course." Odo replies with a nod.

The only commonality Odo could find was that they were both Starfleet officers and had been murdered by the same weapon. They hadn't been at the station for the same length of time; one was a Bolian and the other was a human; and they had neither past nor current associates in common.

Chief O'Brien had determined there was a micro-site-to-site transport which had allowed the bullet to be beamed from one location to another just before the impact hit. So that was how the bullet got to where it was going. 

Quark looked through the first crime scene. "Boring. Happy family pictures. Don't you think all hu-mans look basically the same?"

"I've never really noticed." Odo replied.

"So yes, then."

"No, Quark, when I say 'I've never really noticed', I mean 'I've never really noticed'."

 _You two are so adorable._

_Be quiet, Jadzia, they're working._

_I know, they really are! The sex is going to be incredible._

_Curzon._ Joran replies crossly. _Not helpful. Someone is killing people._

The next crime scene was a messy Bolian scientist from the Astrometrics lab.

"This looks like Rom's room, you can barely dig your way out in there. Real grub pit. And look, more happy family pictures, except this one has Bolians instead of hu-mans."

"Do you think that's relevant?"

"How am I supposed to know what's relevant? You're the constable, Joran's the murderer. I'm just hauling Joran around."

"Sisko to Odo." 

Odo taps his combadge. "Go ahead, captain."

"There's been another murder. Habitat ring, section six."

Odo sighs. "Be right there."

Captain Sisko looks surpised to see Quark. "What are you doing here?"

"He's with me." Odo replies.

"I _know_ that, Chief O'Brien told me that earlier."

Odo sighs deeply. "That's not what I meant. He's assisting with the investigation."

 _"Joran_ is assisting with the investigation." Quark replies. "Quark is just his meat runabout."

"Are you sure about this?" 

"Benjamin. Quark doesn't kill people, remember? Joran does, Quark doesn't. Quark just tries to take all of their latinum away. Now Quark is speaking about Quark in the third person, completing Quark's descent into madness."

"No, I think this is how it's supposed to work." Benjamin replies. "Jadzia referred to Curzon and the others just like this. You're not crazy, this is how it's supposed to happen. Well, good luck." He goes back towards Ops.

"Trouble comes in threes." Quark looks around the quarters, poking at laundry not put back in the replicator. "More delightful hu-man family pictures."

"Didn't your family do that?"

"Oh, Moogie probably has some of Rom and me someplace." Quark sighs. "Ugh. I can't even get some kind of revenge on you without talking to your horrible father."

"He'd just give you statistics about my mass, the forms I could achieve on certain dates. Nothing interesting." Odo thinks to himself. "But _that_ is interesting. They all have, as you said, 'delightful family pictures'. I wonder if that _is_ relevant. Maybe we should speak to Ezri." 

Ezri was having raktajino in the replimat with Nerys.

"Odo." She gets up and gives him a hug. "How was your trip?"

"Productive." He replies, giving nothing away with his expression.

"I looked after Weyoun Six for you." she says with a smile. "But he wants to see you now that you're back. How are _you_ doing, Quark?"

Quark shrugs. "I'm okay. You two could at least patronize my bar."

"We're going there tonight." Ezri replies. "Did you want something?"

Odo catches her up on the case so far, and she looks concerned. "Okay, that sounds pretty relevant to me." 

"Someone whose family died recently?" Nerys says thoughtfully.

 _No._ Jadzia speaks up. _That doesn't make sense. This is too ... scientific for that. The transporter, and the rare weapon. None of that points to a person whose family died recently. This is clinical._

 _Excellent points, Jadzia._ Joran. 

"Uh, no." Quark says. 

Odo looks down at him. "No?"

"Jadzia says it's too scientific. The transporter, and the weapon being really rare. It's a ... clinical crime, she says, and Joran agrees with her." He shivers. 

Odo takes his hand again.

"Do you mind if I stay at your place tonight?" Quark says in a small voice as they walk away. 

"Why?"

"Because Joran is terrifying. I can sleep in the closet if you want, I mean -"

"Quark." Odo chuckles, tightening his grip. "I was just _asking_ , that's all. You don't have to sleep in the closet."

"I should get you that book."

" _Vulcan Love Slave VI: A Thousand Things You Wished You Never Knew About Pon Farr?_ "

Quark laughs. "Nope." Then he stops walking. "Could it be a Vulcan?"

"I don't know. It could be. It does seem _logical_ , that part makes sense."

"Yeah, it does. What if they were ... traumatized in some way?" If there's one thing Quark himself does understand, it's trauma.

Odo thinks about this for a few minutes. "All right. Let's go to my quarters and look into this further."


	15. Chapter 15

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things are said. Realizations are had. Weyoun has drinks. <3

"This place is weird." Quark replies, looking at all the objects. "You can really turn into all of this stuff?"

"Every one of these things." Odo says dryly. "Did you want a demonstration?"

"Nah. But why? What's the point?"

"To know a thing is to become a thing."

"So ... if you believe it, they believe it?"

Odo chuckles. "It's not quite like that, Quark. Although I suppose it could be. Belief is a very strong component."

Between the two of them, they get the list down to under forty Vulcans.

"Now what?" Odo asks. "We talk to Morn?"

"Exactly! And then, we go to Garak." Quark smiles. "You can buy me another drink."

Morn rules out another ten Vulcans, and Garak another five. 

"So now we have twenty-three." Odo sighs on their way back to his quarters. 

_That's him._

Quark grasps Odo's hand a little tighter. 

_What?_ Odo asks. Their Linking is second nature now.

_That one there. That's him. I'm sure of it. The look on his face. I can tell._

Odo leads Quark back to his quarters.

"His name is Lieutenant Chu'lak. You were right, Quark, he served as a junior science officer on the _Grissom_. It took heavy casualties, and he was one of only seven people to make it out alive."

"Did I ever mention I hate being right?" Quark mutters sourly.

"You _love_ being right."

"Not about this."

Odo acknowledges that with a nod, and speaks briefly to Sisko over the comlink. Then he turns to Quark. "Do you want to come along?"

"Well, I'm sure not staying here." 

Quark stayed in the bar. 

The confession, such as it was, took five minutes.

Odo comes back to collect him, and he looks ... drained.

"So what did he say?" Quark asked quietly.

"He said that he did it because logic demanded it." Odo replies shortly.

" _ **How**_ "? Quark shouts. 

"Quark."

"That makes no sense!" Quark mutters. "And I'm saying that as a fellow crazy person!"

"You're not crazy, Quark."

"I feel crazy."

"You might feel like you're crazy. But I assure you, you aren't." He lets them in his quarters. 

"How do you know?"

"Because that Changeling I linked to, the female-presenting one? She was."

Quark steps back. _**"How?"**_

"Madness for power and control is still a form of madness. She wanted power over me so I would return to the Link, and the Dominion as a whole wants control over the Alpha Quadrant."

"Oh." Quark replies softly. "I guess I can't ... I can't argue with that." He sits down on the bed with a heavy sigh. 

"Difficult day?" Odo asks.

"Joran's hard to deal with. It's good he was helpful, but he's tiring."

Odo sits down behind him and begins massaging Quark's shoulders.

"That's nice. You're really good at that, you know." Quark yawns, stretching. "People would pay you for this."

"Is that considered a compliment?"

"On Ferenginar, it's absolutely a compliment. Anything worth doing is worth doing for money."

"The thirteenth rule of acquisition. I'm familiar." He keeps massaging Quark's shoulders, listening to him sigh, and recreates the Link. _You wanted me to say something, I believe?_

Quark's reply was a wordless moan. 

_Because you are **mine** , Quark, and **I** plan on keeping you. I'm a terribly selfish Changeling, though, because I want to have you all to myself. I don't care how much you flirt at the bar as long as at the end of every shift you come home to me._

_No one else would be worth coming home to._ Quark gasps through the Link. _You don't make me want to drink away my life, Odo. You don't make me feel like a failure of a Ferengi businessman or someone dragging a worm around. You make me feel like ... myself._

_What was that book, anyway? Vulcan Love Slave VII: A Thousand and One Things You Forgot to Try During Pon Farr?_

More laughter. _Nope. I'll send it to you later._

Quark was getting the symbiont checked out at the infirmary (just a routine monthly check, like always, and everything was fine) when he ran into Weyoun Six.

"Hello." Weyoun smiles at him. "You are the one who is very dear to Odo. You saved our lives. I am forever grateful to you for that."

"Yeah, that's me, Quark." He looks at Weyoun. "How are you ... different ... from all the other Weyouns?"

"I don't know." Weyoun replies. "I just ... something in my mind felt different. The other Vorta say it may have been an error in my tank or my development, but I think perhaps it was ... what your Captain Sisko calls a 'conscience'? I was different from all the other Vorta. And it was not wrong at all. Merely different."

 _Not wrong at all. Merely different._

He smiles at Weyoun. "Would you like a drink?"

"I don't know. Are they good, these 'drinks'?"

"I think so, yes. Let's go see if you think so too."

"Hey Odo! What are you reading? Did you finish _Cover of Darkness_?"

"I did." Odo replies, his eyes still on the padd. 

"So what's that?"

"Oh, it's a ... reference work. I don't think you'd be particularly interested, Nerys."

"Well, now I'm _curious._ What is it?"

" _Oo-mox for fun and profit_." Odo replies as quickly as he possibly can.

"Excuse me, what?"

"I'm reading _Oo-mox for fun and profit_ , and it's actually interesting." 

"Oh." She chuckles. 

"These Ferengi stardusters taste like _maaaaaaaaaagic_!" Weyoun shouts, staggering around drunkenly.

"What the -" Odo sets down the padd.

"Wow, I've never seen a drunk Vorta before." Ezri says, taking Nerys' arm.

"Neither, I expect, has anyone else. Quaaaaark!" Odo shouts, and goes off towards the bar.


End file.
